Scorecard

A successful trip down to Wolverhampton started the day of well, even the Corsa managed the journey with ease. Fittingly Steve Richards captained the first game against his former club Beacon. Even before the match, many of our side eyed up the short boundary in front of the canal however it wasn’t until the 15th over when we saw our first six of the game. Beforehand, Richards senior and junior got the innings underway, Ricco was as solid as ever. As others came and went (Woods 30something), Ricco easily avoided the Duck hat, something which TC couldn’t manage to do with the Goose. The Goose was then passed down to Mr TJ Jenkins where he too got zero relieving Mr Clare from Duck hat duties. Ben Wickens didn’t seem to have any problems at the other end. With a conventional bat, he found the boundary and canal on more than one occasion. Wickens eventually went for 46, a very respectable score against good opposition. Stu Windsor’s boldness to take the Goose out for a third occasion paid off as he smashed 24 off a minimal amount of balls as others played around him. Being a friendly game, both teams elected to bat out the 40 overs. This allowed Todd Jenkins to attempt to score a run but once again this didn’t happen as he skyed one to mid wicket. We went into tea 208 for 14.

As Notster did the first stint as 12th man (because he had had too much garlic bread at tea) Wickens and Edes got the 2nd innings underway and picked up early wickets with the new ball however the Beacon batsmen always seemed to keep up with the run rate Calne’s luxury of a 12th man proved vital as it allowed players to come off if they needed a drink, picked up an injury or just weren’t playing that well.

It wasn’t until Rich Annett got hold of the ball when batsmen started to slow down, Rich using every bit of his tour experience. Backed up nicely by Smees and Wizzo, Calne slowly pegged Beacon back. Yet the last ten overs saw Beacon accelerate and successfully chase down Calne’s 208-14 with a brilliant knock from R. Fildes who was supported well by T. Ellwell. Although we lost, it was fantastic to open our encounter playing in a friendly and welcoming environment at Beacon CC. Not even the fines later in the bar put a dampener on things.